James Schindler, MD, MPH, serves as the program director for the Methodist Family Medicine Residency program in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He has served patients as a primary care physician in East Tennessee for more than 20 years.

Dr. Schindler grew up in a small North Dakota town and attended the University of North Dakota School of Medicine for basic sciences, earning his medical degree and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. After a residency in northern California, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, receiving his Masters of Public Health in maternal and child health.

Dr. Schindler served as the medical director for Robert Wood Johnson Healthcare for the Homeless program in Denver and the Puyallup Tribe in Tacoma, Washington before returning to Houston to direct the Division of Urban Family Medicine for UT-Houston School of Medicine. He championed efforts to plant family practice residents and faculty throughout underserved communities in Houston and directed an interdisciplinary Primary Care fellowship for the UT Health Sciences Center. Dr. Schindler then returned to Baylor as Vice Chairman of Clinical Affairs for the Department of Family and Community Medicine, replicating the UT-Houston program. He served as Chief of Service for the Ben Taub Hospital and interim residency director during that time. He moved to East Tennessee to raise children and practice primary care in Morristown, Tennessee before being named founding program director for the MMC Family Medicine Residency.

Visit our video library to hear from Dr. Schindler about what he is looking for in a candidate, why he chose family medicine and more.